Is there any kind of atheistic afterlife you can imagine?

I recently wrote a post about this question at my blog that I'll summarize as: "Remember fondly, those you've loved who have passed away. As long as you remember them, they will live on. You are their afterlife."

I'm really interested to hear what ideas other people may have on the concept of a non-supernatural afterlife? It was a tweet that inspired me to think more on the subject so to that end i don't think i'm the only person who's come across the concept?

Without belief in the spiritual/supernatural and the promise of heaven if you're good and hell if you're bad i think it would be sort of nice to know that the good things we did in life will grant us our own afterlife is the memories that others hold of us after we've gone.

I'd like to leave a large "hole" in the concept open to debate as well, as my partner pointed out "bad people get remembered too" - i'd like to think that bad memories create a bad "afterlife" in the sense that you don't really remember bad things in a fond way so wouldn't really dwell on it, or keep it afloat in the same was as something that filled you with happiness?

Most religions offer an eternal life as a reward after death and since we, as atheists all agree, the only real perpetual life is to live on in the brains of other living beings, I think we have to give some credit to the jesus's and allah's and all the likes in the religious world for pulling one off on us.When we die we will be remembered by family and friends for a while but eventually be forgotten.These guys are still engrained in the minds of millions of faithful followers thousands of years later and likely many more to come.So theoretically they developed everlasting life for themselves.Who said the ancients weren't that bright.

In any case, the question of whether God exists and the question of whether an afterlife exists are two separate questions. I'm guessing millions of people worldwide have reached different conclusions on them.

@ Sarah - I agree. I am atheist and I leave my mind open to the idea of possible life after death though I highly doubt it and realize it is not something I could ever know for certain.

You asked me to imagine so Yes... one where we develop the technology to 'upload' someones mind into another 'vessel' (another body or machine or whatever) when our original biological body begins to fail. Or this doesn't really count as an afterlife per se but maybe we will one day know how to stop the aging process and theoretically be able to live forever.

Addressing Sarah's response "As all atheists agree"? How do you know? I personally don't believe in life after death, for the same reason I don't believe in God: The evidence simply isn't there." This is exactly why I assumed atheists would generally agree on this matter because being atheists, they look for scientific evidence on all matters. I am not aware of any to support an afterlife.I think Mabel is doing some wishful thinking by leaving the door open to the possibility of an afterlife if she is truly an atheist.I think part of being an atheist is realizing that when you die and all brain function ceases, its over. You now only exist in the memories of other human beings.

The question is, “Is there any kind of atheistic afterlife you can imagine?”

Since the boiled down definition of atheism only needs a lack of belief in a deity, and afterlife only implies survival of an entity after the death of it’s host body, it’s easy to imagine a multitude of non-deist afterlives. It’s kind of fun to try so here goes… what if science eventually proves that our bodies are a living shell that we inhabit, and that our actual being is an entity not currently visible to the naked eye, except some who have exceptionally developed sensory perception, be it of the main five or something yet to be scientifically understood. Maybe this entity usually requires rest, which often corresponds with the death of our shell. So it rests and when it awakes, rejuvenated, it either finds a new host, or it stays disembodied, if and until it decides otherwise. New entities can come in to existence in the same way existence began in the first place, whatever that was, and they can also go out of existence as a result of some subatomic disturbance, or choice. Maybe parts of one entity can become parts of another entity, or can join completely, or can fracture in to smaller, less robust entities. Maybe they become visible, in a sense, in our 3rd dimension by inhabiting bodies, but the breadth of their existence cannot be known until we have a better understanding of a 26th dimension. This is how I want it. So far.